Top 15 Lightweights

Under a burgeoning sense of ennui and purposelessness, with a vague sense of defeat over a task that only exists in the form of its own failure, I'm made to ask, what's the point? At the end of this year, I'll have graduated (with a degree I should have completed two years ago) without any particular job prospects or professional ambitions, having only a host of rejection letters from publishers and an erratically produced, sub-par MMA blog. Why continue making comics nobody wants? Why continue writing a blog nobody reads? Why do anything?
Here's the top 15 lightweights.

1. Takanori Gomi
Thanks to JZ Cavalcante losing to DREAM grand prix contender Shinya Aoki, Gomi finds himself back at number one. JZ certainly cannot take the top spot after losing to Aoki, and as for Aoki himself, his record is a little too slight compared to Gomi's. The Fireball Kid hasn't been that active, but on paper he's the most consistent at the highest levels of competition.

2. Shinya Aoki
In a pre-fight interview, Aoki once tearfully told the story of how he'd call his father on the telephone sometimes, "just to tell him that I'm alive." Just what the fuck is that supposed to mean, exactly?
Aoki makes number two for having beaten the previously top ranked Gesias Calvancante.

3. Mitsuhiro Ishida

4. Gesias Calvancante

5. Gilbert Melendez

6. Tatsuya Kawajiri

7. Vitor Ribeiro
Because Ribeiro's lightweight resume is so much more expansive, I ranked him above BJ Penn. Ribeiro's loss to Calvancante made this a little difficult, especially since Penn is coming off a win. However, Ribeiro has shown a consistently high level of performance across the last couple years, while Penn still has some question's to answer...

8. BJ Penn
such as: do you kiss on a first date? and: if I were a girl, would you go on a date with me?

9. Joe Stevenson
It's hard to tell if our collective impression of Joe Stevenson has been colored by his mere association with the UFC lightweight title, or if that bit of limelight helped everyone recognize what a quality lightweight he really is. Generally, I believe in the latter. His striking in the match against Penn was relatively good, and he's a powerful grappler with good conditioning as well. I'd like to see a rematch between him and Josh Neer, who beat Stevenson at welterweight (prompting his drop to 155 pounds) and has since dropped to lightweight himself in hopes of revitalizing his career.

10. Sean Sherk
Sherk's lightweight resume is slight but remarkable. His victory over Kenny Florian might not have meant much at the time, but Florian has since proven himself to be a serious contender. That win, in combination with Sherk's defeat of Hermes Franca, proves Sherk as a recognizable force at lightweight. With the UFC lightweight division slightly in flux following a series of suspensions and new additions to the weight class, the title belt has been slightly devalued. Sherk will help legitimize the title one way or another, either by providing an impressive scalp on BJ Penn's belt, or by providing a resume suitable (albeit short) for the lightweight champion.

11. Kenny Florian

12. Roger Huerta

13. Gray Maynard
The bottom three here represents a love triangle among UFC wrestling wunderkind, except the amorous caresses are replaced by double leg take downs, the simultaneous mutual oral sex position has been replaced by the "north-south" position (aka...simultaneous mutual oral sex position) and the warming personal lubricant has been replaced by gobs of sweet Vasoline quivering atop the fingertips of UFC cutman "Stitch."

14. Frank Edgar

15. Tyson Griffin
Griffin's loss to Frank Edgar still lingers in my memory partly due to the amazing fight that precipitated it. In determining who would take this last spot, it was important to remember that Griffin has, since the loss to Edgar, taken three very impressive wins over Gleison Tibau, Thiago Tavares, and Clay Guida (who, along with Joachim Hansen, Jamie Varner, and Marcus Aurelio, just missed the mark).